Buddha-consciousness (Buddhism, Tibetan)

The experience of total unity with the Buddha and a sharing of his experience of awakening and illumination. This experience is the basis of the aspiration to enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and, by whatever method prescribed, has the effect of attaining the Buddha's Form Body and the Buddha's Truth Body. The Form Body may in turn be considered as Enjoyment Body and Emanation Body, and the Truth Body as Nature Body and Wisdom Body. All mistaken dualistic appearances and obstructions to omniscience have been eradicated and the yogi is completely enlightened with respect to all phenomena. This is the last stage of the Tibetan meditation on emptiness; and is depicted in the final stages of the [Tibetan consciousness ascension stages game]

, when the experiences are described as:< (1) [Setting forth]

(pravrajita), when, after all attempts to prevent him have failed, the Buddha leaves the luxury of his life in the palace to seek either perpetual youth, health and immortality or that he may not be reborn.

(2) [Ascetic practices]

(tapas). Rejecting painful forms of meditation since they do not lead to liberation, and the teaching of liberation of supreme self from the body (since the liberated soul is still subject to change and rebirth), the Buddha seeks, with five companions, to remove false views through asceticism. After six years of abiding in "space-pervading concentration", the Buddha sits motionless until his mother persuades him not to die and he perceives that this is not the way of liberation. He is abandoned by the five ascetics and, having eaten and washed, sits to meditate.

(3) [Conquering Mara]

, chief of all gods in the Sense Desire Realm. Despite being assailed by all the fears and distractions that Mara personifies, the Buddha, seated beneath the Bodhi tree, is not moved; he calls on the Earth goddess to witness his fitness for enlightenment and at this the army of Mara flees.

(4) [Buddhahood]

Following the defeat of Mara, the Buddha ascends and descends through four trances, seeing the suffering of the world as beings rise and fall on the karmic wheel of life. He sees all his and others' past lives and seeks the cause and cure of suffering, formulating the [four noble truths]

: rebirth is suffering, the cause of thirst and ignorance; nirvana is transcending rebirth and there is a means of attaining such transcendence. He understands the [twelve-fold chain of dependent origination]

and is fully awakened. He then contemplates and travels through the world systems and seas. Although tempted to give up body and life and achieve nirvana, he decides to remain in silence and peace.

(5) [Turning the wheel of dharma]

. At first reluctant to teach what will not be understood, the Buddha finally, out of compassion, leaves the forest to teach. Three times he turns the wheel of dharma, teaching first the middle-way, the [eightfold path]

; then the [Madhyamika sutras]

of essential emptiness; and finally the [Yogacara]

doctrine of the absolute principle of emptiness. The two latter reveal the tantras.

(6) [Performing miracles]

. In order to convert those who are not impressed by verbal teachings, the Buddha performs a number of miracles.

(7) [Nirvana]

Leaving the physical body, having lived for three months by psychic powers and no longer by karmic forces, the Buddha rises through the four stages of trance, the Realm of Form and the four equalizations of Formless Realm to attain the equanimity of cessation. He descends through the eight stages and rises again through the four trances; he enters Nirvana from a karmically neutral position to pervade the universe with his emanations and be revered for the rest of the age.

In Tibetan Sakya Buddhism these are states in the "Ascension Stages Game". In some sets they are numbered 98 to 104 on the board.